SAND SPRINGS, Okla. — School districts throughout Green Country are adding hydration guidelines to outdoor activities in light of brutal heat during the first weeks of the school year.
“It just kind of led into everybody looking at the calendar and saying, ‘Well, it’s gonna be hot all week.’ So here we are,” Sand Springs Public Schools Director of Athletics Rod Sitton told 2 News Tuesday.
Sitton said he and many other administrators throughout the area are pushing back their respective schools’ first football game to 8 p.m. this Thursday and Friday.
"(The measures are) also about the 5,000 people that are gonna be in the bleachers that are not accustomed to the heat or not acclimated. Athletes are at least out in it every day. Mom and dad and grandma are not so we're trying to take care of everybody," he said.
Another example is Union High School where football practices are now at 6 a.m. and the marching band has limited indoor rehearsals, according to the district.
While many students and parents have their minds set on a return to Friday night lights, players within the gridiron in Sand Springs during afternoon practice at Memorial Stadium Tuesday know their annual Highway 97 Rivalry against Sapulpa be a hydration battle too.
"Most definitely this is the hottest (fall camp)," senior lineman Easton Pritchard said. "It's tough being out here in the heat but we just grind our way through it."
"You can't let it get to you mentally," fellow senior lineman Mason Harris added. "You just have to keep fighting through it. Just try to ignore it the best you can."
Charles Page Head Coach Bobby Klinck said while their practices remain in the afternoons, the water breaks are longer, pads are worn less often, and shade is more available.
"Football is one of the last bastions of toughness to where we can teach it to our young men so we want to keep instilling that, but yeah, we don't wanna push it to to an ultimate limit," Klinck said.
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